KEYSER — Keyser’s sewage treatment plant is fully back online after three of its pumps were knocked out by industrial rags that entered the sewer system last month, infiltrated the pumping station and wrapped around the pumps, fouling their motors.
The city now has four operating pumps and a backup. Even prior to the incident with the rags, all of the pumps were rarely in operating order at the same time.
“We haven’t had four pumps out there for a long time,” said Mayor William “Sonny” Rhodes.
Speaking at Wednesday's meeting of the Keyser Sanitary Board, Sewage Treatment Plant Supervisor Mike Kesecker said the repaired pumps were delivered this week and were wired up by electrical contractors Thursday.
The city has not yet been billed for the reapir work, but the pumps usually cost
about $15,000 apiece to rebuild. City officials are hoping to get a volume discount of sorts, though, as they had given the shop all three at one time.
“They indicated it might be close to $9,000 (apiece),” Kesecker said. “If that's the case, that would be great.”
Kesecker reported a mass of rubber gloves entered the pumping station last week, but they were caught before they could damage the pumps. The pump station features an array of screening mechanisms to catch such material, but some can still get through, and as the rags demonstrated, they can cause significant damage.
“They came through as one big unit...,” he said of the gloves. “Luckily we caught them before they got to the pumps.”
As for the rags, Kesecker said there has been no new infusion since the early January incident that ruined the pumps. City officials believe the problem may have been caused by “bath in a bag” cloths that are used by hospitals and nursing homes, and apparently flushed down commodes. City officials contacted facilities that use such linens, and they pledged to have staff dispose of them in the trash.
“I feel we have a decent handle on the industrial rags,” Kesecker said.
In addition to hooking up the repaired pumps, electricians will give the pump station and the treatment plant itself a once-over, replacing old fuses and checking various alarms. When electricians worked on the pump station during the January incident, they discovered that phone alarms which could have alerted city officials to the rag buildup — and perhaps prevented the $30,000 repair bill — had not been connected.
“It's never been hooked up,” Kesecker said of an alarm at the pump station. “It’s been there 25 years.”
Kesecker also reported that Mendy Sibley, hired recently to help conduct water analysis at the treatment plant, is picking up on the duties and helping staff conduct tests for the city plant, as well as numerous small wastewater “package plants” that contract with Keyser to perform such analysis.
“She's picking it up pretty quick,” he said.
Keyser, W.Va. —
